YOLK.lore

I'm calling from the diner

the diner on the corner

I ordered two coffees

one is for you

the cups are so close

the steam is rising

The Slant/The Diner-Ani DiFranco

 Sooooo….sometimes your humble reviewer lucks out and has a chance to hit a new place.... On it’s very first morning.  In its very first hour of existence.  Such was the case this morning when I had the pleasure of going to the opening day of YOLKlore  Crestwood is woefully short on breakfast options.  Bread Co (Sunset Hills), Mc Donald's.  White Caste (Webster).  The best option is obviously the Courtesy Diner on Laclede and Heege but that is pretty far east.  Watson Road near the late and much lamented Crestwood Plaza is a breakfast desert.

At Grant and Watson sits a poor little strip mall on the corner.  It contains a cigar store, a vape store, an oriental massage place… in short a pretty high end location.  Formerly the location occupied by YOLKlore was a fish and chicken place which has expanded and moved down the road.  Anyway, Yolklore is only a mile from my south Webster (upper Crestwood) manse and so I was excited to check out a neighborhood option.  I mean...I could walk there!

It is at best an unassuming location.  There is signage but it is minimal and when i went in there was still an “Opening Soon” banner hanging from the wall outside.  It seems slightly sterile (clean) but not off putting and the staff was welcoming and friendly.  It looked so well organized and clean that I assumed it was a chain, which it decidedly is not.  The menu is limited in the sense that there are not voluminous items (Think First Watch where you have 45 things thrown at you) but has nice diversity and runs gamut from pancakes to biscuits and gravy with a lot of eggs in between.

http://yolklore.com/menu-1/

I walked in and walked to the counter to place my order and after reviewing options I ordered “The Classic Breakfast” and then gave them my name and got my iced tea and had a seat.  They immediately came to my table with a smackerel of St. Louis’s own gooey butter cake.  It was excellent and welcoming.  There are no waiters or waitresses.  My food came up in about 5 minutes and was, in a word, perfect.  They serve on press board basket/plates (which is sort of off putting for me) and they are very functional and I would guess cut down on their labor costs.  

Frequent reader will not my obsession with hash browns.  They don't have them.  They have instead “smashed” potatoes and what they were was two small brown skinned potatoes (I wont say “artisinal” since it has become a meaningless term) but two very nice little potatoes, roasted and it appeared browned slightly in a skillet and browned.  Not crispy but VERY flavorful.  The eggs (over easy) were perfectly prepared.  The sausage (they grind their turkey and chorizo sausage) I ordered was sage and I found it didn't have the kick I like from sage but it was more than adequate.  

If there was a weak spot on the plate it was either that or the side of biscuit and gravy that came with it.  The gravy was perfect in consistency but once again, like the sage sausage, lacked “POP” but not everyone likes the pepper like I do.  The biscuit I found problematic.  I believe it was perfectly done for what it was but it was a heavier (critically I would say “leaden”) biscuit and I prefer lighter.  This was almost scone like in density and I definitely prefer a fluffier product.

I LIKED IT!

I salt n pepper before I taste and since this is a chef driven breakfast place, they might not appreciate that.  I am attributing either that, or opening day jitters but they have no salt n pepper condiments and when i asked they gave me some Mc Cormick grinders from the kitchen which were excellent but a little disjointed and awkward needing to ask.  The seating also might be problematic for some.  They have a long table and high stools up the middle with stools around two edges and a ledge table for eating.  Might not be the best place for a breakfast meeting with those options but they did have a pair of two tops and a four top for regular seating.

Over all I would give this 4.5 Slingers on the 5 scale.  It is really good and really high end without being too pricey.  My breakfast was 10 bucks and although they don't have servers they do have a tip jar at the counter.  While not a “value” place it is really excellent food.  The owners were there on opening day and they seem to have worked out a lot of the kinks by doing breakfast pop ups at places like Byrd n Barrel.  This place is a keeper and I am excited to direct you to go there and give them a shot. This could be my new “home base”.

They also have a DRIVE THROUGH!

Good background Article from the RFT: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/foodblog/2016/04/22/new-chef-driven-breakfast-restaurant-yolklore-will-open-in-crestwood

Sauce Article: http://www.feastmagazine.com/the-feed/article_ae09e76a-f03c-11e5-9339-5b7f1d43e724.html

Diner Review: Luvy Duvy's

Soooo....there is always some stress and embarrassed when you have to read about something in the Post Dispatch in order to realize that you should have been there. It is even more embarrassing when Larry reads the Post and calls you on it. I mean, when you ARE the St. Louis Diner Review you do have some things that are just your job and beating the under staffed, haphazard Post Dispatch to the punch is one of those duties. So the Post ran something last week in the GET OUT or LIVING section... or whatever they call it now covering Luvy Duvy’s.

I have seen Luvy Duvy’s before. On my way to get tacos on Cherokee at La Vallasina Luvy Duvy’s sat there, brooding on the corner of of Jefferson and Arsenal. I always assumed it was just a bad lunch and dinner place, doomed to go out of business. Garish pain on the sides and the windows. I had no idea that they had breakfast, There was no signage. Someone should speak to them regarding modern advertising. The building was garishly painted and I assumed extremely incorrectly that it was another “soul food” place like “Sweetie Pies”. I mean Sweetie Pie, Luvy Duvy... you cant blame me.

So the Post gave the place a nice review and said it opened at 7 and like a fool, I believed them. So I drove around south St. Louis. It was Cinco De Mayo (March 7th according to the posters) and they were setting up Cherokee for a party. Cherokee Street west of Jefferson is becoming a cool treasure with the excellent food and the print shop and that incredibly pretentious independent record store that I never know the name of. Anyway, I killed an hour and then went back at 8:05 and there already several cars on Jefferson in front of the place which is a really good sign.

I went in and the place is basically set up like a corner bar. I immediately knew I was in the new cool breakfast place in town. We have not had a cool place in a while. Really the last one was “After” which was on Manchester down in the Grove. It was a “cool” place and this place has a great vibe. Arguably even better than that because it was older and a little darker which... is good in the morning. It was also cool because of the servers. It reminded me of my recent trip to the “Waveland” in Des Moines where I entered and was instantly aware that I was not cool enough to be there. Since this was in the Lou and it was not a directly post college crowd... it was cool but not too cool. I am not sure I used the word cool enough in this paragraph. Are we cool on that?

So I walk in and get a seat next to the wall and start to read my Saturday Post. I found out a while ago that unless you get home delivery, there is no Saturday Post. Not in the machines. not in new stands...nothing. Who knew? It is hard bearing the St. Louis Dining world on my tiny little back but we all have a cross to bear. So, since I do not eat eggs I ordered biscuits and gravy with sausage, hash browns and an order of bacon. The iced tea.... wait for it... FRESH BREWED!

I tried to enjoy the Post as the place filled up and it did fill up. There were posers like myself but they clearly had a neighborhood crowd and a crowd of regulars, just like a diner should. The waitresses were young (under 40, maybe under 30, I can’t tell anymore) and they seemed polite and friendly and not overly chatty (huge advantage). The whole thing is run off of a very small griddle which I think is cool but I also have some concerns when they get a crowd. But mainly my concerns were overblown and for naught. I have become a diner “worrier”. An old woman among men, worrying that they are not doing things right.

Breakfast came on two plates.

The GREAT thing is the biscuits and gravy. As advertised their were two large biscuits (do not ask for half orders, it provides a mumbled “we don’t usually do that”). They were crispy on the bottom and not heavy and hockey puckish at all. A yellow or corn flower might be involved based on their color or they might have just been perfectly browned. They were also covered with sausage that also had a light char (as God intended). The gravy was classic, not too thinck and clearly made with love. Buy this.

The Good. the bacon was top notch. Also cooked with love. But not cooked with LUST as bacon should be cooked. It was crisp (averting the cardinal sin of floppiness) and had a slight smoke. really good. Not great like the biscuits but really good.

The ugly. The hash browns “looked” great. A thin browned patty of shredded potatos. They looked perfect in fact. like Spencers but thinner. Maybe only a ¼ inch of thickness. I was really excited... till I tasted them. I could not define what was off. I will try them again because they looked perfectly cooked but whether it was because the oil or because they were prepared ahead (remember the small grill) they did not match up to the first two.

The eggs I saw on other peoples plates looked cook to order and delicious. There is no chili so no slinger, but on the brighter side, there are grits. Here is the menu:

http://www.luvyduvys.com/Menu.html

You know how I feel about the potato. But still, everything else was perfect and I found in myself a forgiveness for bad hash browns that I had not known prior to this time. perhaps there is still room for me to grow? They also serve beer and following my usual Derby Day tradition, daddy had a Busch.

Who knows, but the bottom line is that Luvy Duvy’s is a keeper. 8 ½ Slingers on the 1o scale.